Readers’ gifts change Richmond working mom’s life

Martha Ochoa, a single mother, thought she’d found the perfect place to rent. It was too good to be true.

Photo: San Francisco Chronicle

All Martha Ochoa wanted for Christmas was to be able to pay the rent on her one-bedroom apartment in Richmond.

She was short $1,000 in November, and she didn’t know how she’d catch up this month.

“I wasn’t even thinking I was going to be able to buy presents for my kids for Christmas,” said Ochoa, a single mother of three daughters.

Her rent is $1,750 a month, but Ochoa, a patient care coordinator at Western Dental & Orthodontics, said with bills, including internet and power, the total monthly cost of paying for a roof over her head sometimes reaches $2,000.

Suddenly, things are really good. I’ll tell you about it, but first a quick recap.

Last month, I wrote about Ochoa, who was duped in a rental scam, according to the Contra Costa County district attorney’s office. It’s exactly a year ago to the day that Ochoa gave a woman she met through Facebook Marketplace a $900 cashier’s check for a deposit on a two-bedroom apartment on Bayview Avenue in Richmond. Ochoa was supposed to move in Dec. 15, 2018, but the woman stopped responding to her texts and calls after cashing the check.

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Martha Ochoa, a single mother, thought she’d found the perfect place to rent. It was too good to be true.

Video: San Francisco Chronicle

Ochoa, 36, wasn’t the only person duped by the woman. In September, a Contra Costa County grand jury indicted Mercedes Gonzales, 25, of San Pablo on 42 criminal counts in a real estate fraud case that stretched over three counties. Gonzales has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors say Gonzales posted her online ads in Spanish. Ochoa was one of 23 victims, according to Kristina McCosker, a deputy district attorney.

It’s been a stressful year for Ochoa. Like many low-wage workers in the Bay Area, she lives paycheck-to-paycheck. She couldn’t afford to lose $900. She fell behind on bills.

But, her life changed because of the generous donations she received from Chronicle readers.

On Friday, I dropped off $7,200 to Ochoa. Now she can pay her rent and buy Christmas presents.

First, she opened an envelope with $900 cash from an anonymous person.

“No way. Are you serious?” she said. “Oh, my God. Who would do this?”

Then, there was an envelope with a $900 cashier’s check, another one with a $300 check — both from readers.

Another reader, Jim Lawson, wrote a $100 check.

Then, came an envelope with a $5,000 cashier’s check in it — yes, $5,000. Ochoa was speechless for more than a minute as we sat on the pull-out couch in her living room that she sleeps on with her 2-year-old daughter.

“There’s still good people out there,” she said after wiping her eyes. “This is life-changing. You have no idea how much this is going to help me.”

We now live in a world where facts are despised, distorted and denounced. But here’s an unimpeachable fact: The persistent economic and social disparities in the Bay Area are pushing more and more people out of their homes and onto the streets. There are people stuck living on the street with no hope of getting housing without financial assistance, and there are people who are a paycheck away from joining them.

Pictured is Mercedes Gonzales, 25, of San Pablo, who was indicted by the Contra Costa County District Attorney's office in connection with a scheme in which she allegedly collected rent from prospective renters on properties she did not own.

Photo: Courtesy Contra Costa County DA

I can’t look past what’s happening. Apparently, neither can some of this column’s readers.

In 2017, Dorothy DeBose, a victim of predatory lending, was evicted from the East Oakland house her mother had left her. I wrote several columns about her attempts to buy back her house from the property management firm that had acquired it in a foreclosure auction. An anonymous reader gave DeBose and her nephew, Omar Taylor, the down payment they needed to buy back the home: $120,000. They’re still in the home.

In November 2018, I interviewed Renee McGhee for a column on Josephine, the online marketplace that let home cooks like McGhee sell meals. She was able to afford the $750 rent on her one-bedroom Berkeley apartment by cooking and selling meals once a week, but when the Oakland startup shut down, McGhee struggled to make ends meet. After the column was published, readers made donations.

Something similar happened to Kelly Thompson, a Vietnam veteran I met in October 2018 when he lived in a small camper in a West Oakland field. George Nunes, then president and CEO of California Fleet Maintenance Inc., an engine repair shop in Hayward, offered to fix the pickup truck Thompson uses to pull his camper.

I heard from Nunes again last week. He was the reader who sent the $900 cashier’s check for Ochoa.

“I have been blessed beyond measure, and reading about experiences about how cruel this world can be, well, it just reaffirms just how blessed I am and it gives me a great sense of joy to be able to give back to others. More so than earning the money that I’ve given away,” Nunes said.

Nunes also told me that this week Thompson is performing electrical work for a gym in Fair Oaks, a city east of Sacramento.

“He’s an incredible electrician and is helping us with inside video and audio cable installation, among other work,” Nunes said. “I’m still in awe as to how we met and the bond that has resulted.”

Otis R. Taylor Jr. is the East Bay columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle, focusing on the people who make the region a fascinating place to live and work. A South Carolina transplant, Otis spent more than a decade at The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper, writing about arts, culture and entertainment. Previously, Otis was the managing editor of a tech startup. Otis is interested in reporting on issues relating to diversity and equality in the East Bay, as well as the region’s history, culture and politics. He studied English at Clemson University.